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Lumumba asks Bugiri voters for forgiveness
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) secretary general, Justine Kasule Lumumba. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
Lumumba, who was speaking at the launch of campaigns within the 19 villages that make up Bugiri municipality, said: “Voters need to forget what went wrong between and give Oketcho and the NRM party the mandate to work for them given that he is the best candidate among the contestants.”
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) secretary general, Justine Kasule Lumumba, last week asked voters in Bugiri municipality to forgive the party of any past wrongdoing and support its flagbearer in the July 27 polls.
Ms Lumumba said that John Francis Oketcho, the NRM flagbearer in the Bugiri municipality MP seat ‘will be beneficial to voters once voted because he is in the ruling party - with access to the president’.
Lumumba, who was speaking at the launch of campaigns within the 19 villages that make up Bugiri municipality, said: “Voters need to forget what went wrong between and give Oketcho and the NRM party the mandate to work for them given that he is the best candidate among the contestants.”
Four candidates are contesting for the newly created Bugiri municipality MP seat and they include; Asuman Basalirwa (Jeema) Eunice Namatende (FDC) and Joel Wamono, an independent.
Another candidate, Hajji Siraj Lyavala, formerly the district chairman, recently stepped down from the race in favour of Basalirwa.
However, since then, he has endured a frosty relationship with police and other security agencies, with his biggest test coming last Thursday when he was barred from leaving his home to attend a campaign rally organized by Basalirwa at Busoga University playgrounds.
In the confrontation with police that ensued, one of Basalirwa’s supporters-cum bodyguard, Ramanthan Walyendo, 30, was shot in the chest. He passed away last Friday.
Basalirwa, who was addressing the rally when this fatal shooting happened, said he narrowly survived being shot since he was standing next to the deceased and warned police against indulgence in violence.
